Shoelaces and Aglets

I’ve learnt a new word… Yesterday afternoon the grandchildren and were playing ‘Bananagrams’ – a word game that’s a bit like Scrabble. They included the word ‘aglet’. ‘That’s not a word!’ I said. I was wrong.

Grandchildren sung the ‘Phineas and Ferb’ song ‘Aglet’ – which isn’t in my repertoire – with great enthusiasm. I looked it up.

‘Aglet: a metal or plastic tube fixed tightly round each end of a shoelace.’

We ate our first carrots from the garden yesterday. During the shoelace-life of the carrot I did a little watering and weeding to help them on their way; the actual growing they did themselves – and made a pretty good job of it! The aglet-ends of the carrots’ lives – sowing the seeds and eating the carrots – were tidy and well defined.

I spent many years teaching in Middle Schools. Children joined us when they were nine and stayed with us for a shoelace-length of four years. Transitions were important – from primary school when the children started… to high school when they were thirteen. We wanted every child to have a good, tidy aglet-beginning and aglet-end.

Several friends are starting new jobs. For some, finishing their previous employment has been frayed and untidy, damaging to their effectiveness in their shoelace-job. The best experiences of job-start and job-end are tidy and ‘well-agletted’.

Reading again the Jesus narrative… His shoelace-life of teaching, healing, miracles, mentoring, example-setting, questioning, challenging… holds everything together. The beginning of Christmas and the end of Easter… emphasising Jesus’ identity, purpose, suffering, forgiveness, death, life, hope… are the vital, strong aglets.

Musing on…

…The strength and usefulness of my life-shoelaces holding it all together…

… Good aglet-beginnings and aglet-ends in my life that have enabled me to thread my shoelaces efficiently and effectively and have prevented my life-shoelaces from fraying.

…In particular the shoelace of our marriage that holds our family together firmly and strongly… the marriage ceremony was the clear start-aglet… ‘till death us do part’ is the end-aglet.